Religion in Slovakia

In the Population and Housing Census 2001 (performed by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic - www.statistics.sk), the citizens had to indicate their religious affiliation. The question was not mandatory, so 3% of the population have written nothing into the field 'Religion' ("náboženstvo").

Out of about 5.4 million inhabitants of Slovakia, more than two thirds declared their affiliation to the Roman-Catholic Church. Thirteen percent are churchless, but this number is much smaller than the 59% in the neighboring Czech Republic.

It looks like the people in Slovakia are very religious. Except for the fact, that most of them have been baptised as children and have proceeded other holy ceremonials, many of them visit the masses on Sunday.

However, since the new hypermarkets have opened on Sundays, many people prefer to go shopping instead of visiting the mass. The church officials claimed, that the people should not work on Sundays (they were talking about shop-assistants, not about firemen, policemen, nurses or bus-drivers), but some unofficial opinion poll showed, that about two thirds of the respondents wish they could go shopping even on Sundays.